RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Although the Quakes proved they have power by hitting five home runs in Game 1, manager Keith Johnson prefers to play small ball, producing runs with sacrifice bunts.

When the Quakes missed a couple of early bunt opportunities in Game 2 on Thursday, Johnson went to the hit and run.

A hit-and-run grounder kept the Quakes out of the double play, and they added on with the long ball and routed the Mavericks 7-1 in front of 1,041 at The Epicenter to sweep the best-of-three South Division first-round series.

The win advances the Quakes to the best-of-five South Division finals, where they’ll open at Lake Elsinore on Saturday. The first two games are at Lake Elsinore, Saturday and Sunday, followed by Games 3 and 4, if necessary, at The Epicenter on Monday and Tuesday. Game 5 would be at Lake Elsinore on Wednesday if necessary.

The win was the 15th in the last 19 games overall for the Quakes, who advanced to the South Division finals for the second time in as many years. Last year, the Mavericks took the South title in five games over the Quakes.

“It’s big to win this one,” Johnson said, “but we’ll have a tough one with Lake Elsinore.”

With the game scoreless in the third, Darwin Perez led off with a shattered-bat grounder to third. Third baseman Shaver Hansen, possibly thrown off by the broken bat, bobbled the ball for an error.

With Mike Trout batting, Perez took off for second, which saved the Quakes from a double play as Trout grounded out to shortstop.

“I didn’t want to take the bat out of Trout’s hands (with a bunt), and you wouldn’t normally do that with a left- hander, but I decided to roll the dice,” Johnson said.

Then with Perez on second and taking off for third on a hit and run, Alberto Rosario squeezed a ground ball between short and third for an RBI single.

Luis Jimenez belted the next pitch over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer, and suddenly the Quakes led 3-0.

Jimenez was the sixth different Quake to homer in the first two playoff games.

In the first inning, Rosario failed to get a bunt down after Trout led off with a double, but advanced him to third anyway on a groundout. In the second, Eric Oliver bunted into a fielder’s choice with two on and no outs. Kevin Ramos followed by grounding into an inning-ending double play.

The Mavericks got on the board in the fifth and threatened to take the lead.

Denny Almonte led off with a double and came around to score on successive groundouts to second by Trevor Coleman and Hansen.

It appeared that the Mavericks would have to settle for the one run, but Kyle Seager doubled to left center, Edilio Colina walked on four pitches and Johermyn Chavez was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With the bases loaded and two outs, the league leader in RBIs, Rich Poythress, grounded out to second.

That was the last batter for starter Orangel Arenas, who was replaced by Jose Perez.

Perez did his job, as did the rest of the bullpen, and the Quakes added to the lead.

In the sixth, Gabe Jacobo joined the home run parade with his first of the playoffs, and Kevin Ramos added an RBI triple. Dillon Baird added his second home run in as many games, a two-run shot in the eighth.

It was the Quakes’ eighth homer in two games.

“That’s something we’ve had the capability to do all year,” Johnson said of the long ball. “I really liked the job. We finished the game. They’re always dangerous.”

Now it’s on to the next round, where the Quakes will send Garrett Richards (4-1) to the mound Saturday.

Pete Marshall started his career as a freelancer for The Sun in 1991, then later was hired full time by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in 1995. Since then he has covered a variety of sports for the Daily Bulletin and The Sun, primarily high school sports and minor league baseball. He's been doing it long enough that he's now covering the children of student-athletes he covered when he first started.

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